Café Risque Interstate signs coming down, sort of

A sign hangs from the fence surrounding Cafe Risque. The city of Lavonia purchased the property through a third party for nearly $1 million.

LAVONIA - The billboards advertising Cafe Risque in Lavonia came down after the business was closed July 29, but at least two billboards in South Carolina will remain.

Truck drivers had been known to exit Interstate 85 and eat at Cafe Risque while the topless waitresses working there served them. Many residents did not believe the provocative strip club belonged in the area.

The city purchased the strip club for $995,000 on July 29. Jerry Sullivan, the owner of numerous strip clubs along Interstate 85 and Interstate 75 in Florida and Georgia, opened the strip club in 2001 off exit 173 of I-85.

A cluster of six billboards in Georgia, located between Carnesville and Lavonia on I-85 were removed last week, said Gary Fesperman, the city manager.

Two other billboards in Georgia, owned by Sunshine Outdoors, will be removed soon, Fesperman said. They must come down within 30 days after the strip club closed, he said.

However, at least two billboards advertising the strip club in South Carolina will stay and eventually advertise other Cafe Risque locations in Georgia farther south on I-85, Fesperman said. He did not know when exit 173 would be removed from those billboards to advertise other locations.

Jeff Schnake of Lavonia said that he was happy to see the strip club close and the six billboards come down because they will no longer discourage quality businesses from coming to the area.

"It think is better for the community," he said. "I thought it was good."

Sullivan paid $650,000 to acquire the property in 2001, according to the deed.

The club stayed open after Sullivan died in 2006 in his sleep in 2006 in Alachua, Fla., at the age of 47. City officials never found out who continued to run the club after that. A third party, who did not want to be identified, bought the property so the city could acquire it, officials said.

Fesperman said that 95 percent of the feedback he has received since the strip club was shut down has been positive. The other 5 percent represented concerns over how much money was spent to acquire the property.

He said the closing of the strip club would be good for the local businesses in Lavonia because more people will be stopping by the area.

"We are blessed to have a community that supports us," Fesperman said. "We are blessed to have the leadership to do things like this."